You’ve found comfort in the pandemic…and so will your missionary

Psalm 46:10  Be still, and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

Has being forced to “be still” by the government provoked you to memorize and find comfort in the truth contained in the first half of this verse?

Many followers of Jesus have.

And I thank God for that.

But don’t cheat yourself by concentrating only on the first half.

I’d like to challenge you to also think about the truth contained in the second half of the verse.

My desire is for every person who reads this to bask in all the truth found in this important verse.

Honestly though, my main goal is to equip you and to provoke you to share the unique and encouraging truth found in this WHOLE verse with any missionaries you might know.

In the first nine verses, the writer of this Psalm, inspired by the Spirit of the Living God, speaks to God’s people in the midst of their difficult circumstances.

Their hearts and minds and the “focus” of their attention had shifted from God and His sovereign control and goodness to the external events that were taking place and impacting their day-to-day lives.

And because of this, many of them had been crippled by fear.

The Psalmist’s method of encouraging them was simple.

He drew their attention to God Himself.

He reminded them of the many ways that God expresses His love and care for His people in the midst of the struggles and storms that He has permitted them to encounter.

In other words, He reminds them of things they already knew about Him.

But in verse 10, something interesting happens.

Although everything that the Psalmist said to God’s people in the previous nine verses was from God, it was communicated indirectly to them, by way of the Psalmist himself speaking directly to them.

Now though, in this verse, God Himself speaks to them, in the first person tense!

FIRST: He commands them to:  “Be still and know that I am God”

His desire is that they relax, or sink down and rest in what they know by their previous interaction and experience with Him–that He is God!

Kind of like a pilot on the intercom telling the passengers to sit back, relax, and trust him to do what they believed he could do before they got on the plane.

Few missionaries are having the level of impact that they imagined they would have prior to their departure for the mission field.

He is telling them to pause, to cease striving–to stop doing what they’ve been doing.

And, he also wants them to think deeply about the reality that He is God!

SECOND:  He tells them what He Himself will do:

“I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth”!

Oh, how missionaries need to be reminded of this crucial truth!

They need to be reminded regularly that the Lord who sent them to the field will exalt Himself among the nations and throughout all the earth.

Encourage your missionary friends to consider afresh, when they do stop and are at rest in Him, that He is the originator and ultimately, the satisfier of their desire to exalt Him among the nations and throughout the earth.

Remind them that their obedience to the desire He instilled in them is what provoked them to relocate in order to live among–to be present among the people that He has called them to reach.

Challenge them to take this astounding truth of this verse very seriously:

The impact of their presence among the people God has called them to, will be enhanced, not hindered, by their being still in His presence and focusing their mind and hearts on Him–confident in His purpose and ability to exalt Himself among the nations and throughout the earth